The field of the invention is stabilized platforms and systems for cameras.
In motion picture, television or video filming or recording, the camera is often supported on a vehicle, to follow an action or moving sequence to achieve a desired camera angle or effect, or to film occupants in or on the vehicle. Various specialized camera cars, camera trucks, cranes, and dollies have been used for this purpose.
It is important for the camera to be maintained in a stable position. In the most basic form, camera stability has been achieved by mounting the camera on a tri-pod. However, when the camera is mounted on and moves with a vehicle, maintaining camera stability often becomes difficult. For example, with a camera mounted on a camera car moving along a roadway and filming or recording a fixed subject on the ground, e.g., a building, or a subject which is also moving e.g., another moving vehicle, the lens of the camera will necessarily move in unintended and undesirable ways, due to various factors. These factors may include changes in the roadway direction or inclination, changes in the vehicle orientation, due to shifting gravitational or inertial loads, as well as for other reasons. The undesirable camera lens movement resulting from these factors reduces the quality of the filmed or recorded images, by causing the images to be improperly framed, or to appear jumpy or erratic.
Various systems have been used to provide a stable camera platform. These include gyro-stabilized camera heads which reduce or avoid unwanted movement of the lens, while also allowing the lens to aimed as desired about two or three axes. The axes of lens movement are generally referred to as the pan and tilt axes, with the third axes, if used, being a roll axis. Pan movement refers to a change in azimuth. Tilt movement refers to change in the lens angle of elevation. Roll movement refers to movement about an axis co-linear with or parallel to the axis of the lens. Typically, camera stabilization systems use sensors on a camera head connected to a controller. The controller controls electric motors based on outputs from the sensors, to try to keep the camera platform is a stable angular position relative the pan, tilt and roll axes. Although existing camera stabilization systems have performed with varying degrees of success, various engineering challenges remain in providing precise and consistent stabilization control of camera platforms.